Sunday 28 October 2012

AGENTS and WHITE-APES and MONEY




'Following the demise of my own literary agent I find myself right back in the pond of despond where wannabees without agents have their stuff chucked routinely onto what is called a publisher's slush pile. Oh dear. I am a born again wannabee. LOL.

Publishers, the good and the bad, want you to be represented by a bona-fide agent AND its almost impossible to get signed up to an agent unless you al
ready have a considerable deal with a publisher. That is the trap- emotional torture between a rock and a hard place.

SO for the last three days I have not been creative writing- I have been of immediate necessity, bloody mindedly, cold contacting upwards of 500 people who may help. Take note Mike Knowles. That is in addition to compiling a long list of my personal industry contacts which I have accrued over the years. There are many and they all need to be personally approached.

It is something I find difficult- asking someone who I know could help me to help me. Besides I have experience of personal disappointments in this department. The myth is that it is not what you know but who you know. However, the who whom you know has got to be willing to help, and never assume that they will.

Currently my intimate A-List contacts include Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Phil Collins, Julie Walters

I am already published and regularly publish through Paraphilia and am seeking to be represented along with my co-writer by someone who will agent home and overseas:- Movie-scripts/TV series scripts/adult long and short fiction/children's fiction and autobiographical. The back catalogue is vast. We have fine product ready to go.

If you cannot help Chris Madoch and Mike Knowles, maybe you know someone who can.' CM










'As much as I have always believed profoundly in the supreme power of love to work creatively in a broadly healing way- mankind appears to me to be intent on pro-actively disproving this concept.

The daily addition of damning and destructive facts continues apace, I think alarmingly so. The way the larger mankind organisations of all kinds both secular and religious, capitalist or philanthropic m
anage to encapsulate themselves within invisible balloons of rarefied air where all the employees breathe subjective versions of the truth has become endemic.

As a currency, truth has become far too variable to invest in or to be trade-able. The opposite- lies and corruption, and being adept in those skills have become virtual necessary implicated qualifications on anyone's CV. Without them advancement will not come.

Should I continue to care? How isolated am I if I do?

Who is there left to trust?' CM










'Utterly bushed [no I have not been turned] and out of sorts.

Missing my three grown-ups daughters and dead son- the gene pool [including nine grandchildren] of this 'gay dad' seems to have become utterly dysfunctional. It is as if my wonderful partner and I have been written out of their lives.

Was it so bad of me to be half of what it takes to have given them a life on this planet. I think tha
t is deserving of some respect and communication. Yes I left them after thirteen years of living a lie BUT I have never been an absent father- just a very gifted and eccentric one

Both my parents are dead and believe me, it is so true, that you miss them terribly when they are gone. Then, of course, it is too late to do the right thing by them.

We live in an era when no-one does the right thing until it is too late. We have gotten very good at picking up the tab for those unnecessary responsibilities- we wash our hands of them and move on.

I cannot believe in the storybook Christian heaven- it is too plausibly part of a carrot and stick mind-set of which I am loathe to play a part, BUT imagine if it were true: well I am facing massive acts of contrition at the feet of the souls of my own parents. There were so many things I failed to put right whilst I had the chance.

What stopped me. Ideology, self-importance and a lack of a profound understanding of the power of love to create creative difference in an infinite number of ways. Older, wiser and still constantly learning I realise my mistakes BUT I cannot turn back time and paper over the cracks.

If this is the modern evolution of the family then, what pray, am I supposed to do with that space in my heart empty of nothing but pain? My feelings arise possibly from the last of the 'old school' generations in which no-one EVER held one's elders in such invisible disdain.' CM





'Weatherman he say- low cloud, mist, fog [cloud on the ground], drizzle, in a far too sunshiney way for my liking, immediately after an early debate on the radio where it is stated again and again that football is institutionally racist and also institutionally homophobic: time for it not to be lauded as a national sport then.' CM





'According to black peoples [BBC Radio 5 this morning] the word black is now legitimately back in play 'on their terms'- this is to say that it is OK to use the word black except in any context when it can be deemed by black people as being clearly and unequivocally insulting to black people. Fine and dandy.

I take it the same holds true for the word white.

A black man calling a white man a 'whi
te ape bastard' is wrong.
A white man calling a white man a 'white ape bastard' is wrong.
A black man calling a black man a 'white ape bastard' is wrong.

You get my drift. But how do we get a grip.

The race issue in multi-cultural Britain is way more complex than something as cut and dried as a matter of black and white and any quick fix will all ways run the risk of being labelled racist however well intentioned. Political correctness is itself a barrier to progress- that should be obvious to anyone. The banana skins are many and no-one is staying particularly upright.

I could be elitist, generalise and label the majority of football supporters as 'thick', throwbacks to perhaps the missing links that Darwinians have long looked for- throwing banana skins at them would make consummate sense. They support a game which they refer to as beautiful when it is plainly very ugly. A sport which is both institutionally homophobic and racist should never be lauded by anyone with any intelligence as beautiful, they should be lambasting it for being ugly, outdated, greedy and totally out of touch with its fan-base.

I would like to see the British Government say that the sport is undeserving of being referred to as our national sport.

There is every prospect that the next time England wins the world cup it will do so fielding a team composed entirely of black English players.

Until that defining moment arrives we all seem content to still not see the player before we see the colour of his skin. This in turn forces black people to make their skin colour more politically prominent than their skills and character. Both positions are polarising and both sides need to retreat from them immediately.

Yes. I am very black and white about that.' CM





'Hey ho- here we go again, headlong into the maelstrom of the follies of both women and men. I woke up to literally screamings emanating from my radio- very indignant mothers accusing the UK Govnt's new policy on child benefits as being "eugenics on the poor via the back door". Facism watchers take note.
In my confused half-awake state, having also heard something about enforced contraception, my 
mind of course leaped to the growing incidence of heterosexual anal sex. What a shitty way to greet the nothing is new day- thank you BBC Radio 5. You are so 'street'. LOL.
Oh very very dear. Still on my strict gulag diet. Now what am I allowed for breakfast- a handful of mini shredded wheats minus the milk of kindness: being a clever and satirical pleb I like to name each one after members of the current neo-fascist conservative government. It broadens the dry eating experience. LOL.' CM





'Bored to death with common or garden eccentricity, reclusiveness and depression- [isn't everyone with a modicum of sense left] I am seeking fresh ponds to struggle up into with the vigour of a young salmon: uber-individualism comes to mind, it seems to sit well with our future mind-set.

With such a tag I can start anew producing what I know in my heart to be utter crap.

It will catch on like wi
ld-fire, like utter-crap has proven to do and it will be make me immensely rich and famous.

BUT will I be happy?

Of course not! Ask Damien Hirst and Tracy Emmin and Carol Duffy. What the fuck has happiness got to do with ANY of the successful forms of modern creative expression. Sadly very little- as is so evident WHEN you switch on your proper critical faculties and properly seek answers to the question WHY.

MONEY is everything and ALL it is about. Damien Hirst, when he had become extremely wealthy off of the back of tat, said this very clearly when he produced his iconic diamond encrusted skull.

Second thoughts. Forget my first thought- you have already.' CM





'An acquaintance of mine has just returned from Calcutta and burst my dream balloon by describing the reality of the conditions there.
Oh dear. I have often used the metaphor that the streets of London are paved not in gold but in shit and the dust from the bones of the dead.
Apparently, according to my contact, this is in fact TRUE of Calcutta. He is currently ill from his trip.
He is an importer of fancy goods and is much traveled in India and beyond. Those who have watched the movie The Marigold Hotel beware.
We all of us love our dalliances with dreams but reality can be such a taskmaster.
Take some form of reality check at least once a day.' CM












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